Pages

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Malaysia: The Epicenter of H1N1 in Asean?

I’ve read in the papers today that till date, we have 196 cases of H1N1. I’ve met a few doctors over the last weekend and one of the topics for discussion was H1N1 in our country. I predicted then to my colleagues that I will not be surprised that the number of cases will go up to 200-300 cases in the next two weeks. The reason is that it is difficult to contain a disease that spread so easily.

Earlier, you will notice of nearly 200 cases, most of it are imported cases. That means we have to be more stringent at the entry point. I wrote in the blog earlier that the temperature of incoming travelers should be taken when they land at our airport and before disembarkation. This is to ensure effective quarantine and contact tracing of people who have come into contact with the H1N1 patient. Whether or not they quarantine themselves according to book, we do not know. As long as there is fever in the plane, then that patient is a suspect until proven otherwise. Passengers around him will have to be strictly quarantined and the quarantine will only be lifted if the suspect turns out to be negative of H1N1 virus. Presently, by the time the suspect disembarks and be sent to hospital, he would have come into more contact with other people. It is difficult to do contact tracing of people who have come into contact with the suspected patient, since it is difficult to remember exactly people you have come into contact with and it may not necessarily be the people known to you.

Presently, we practice home quarantine. To be effective, we need the cooperation of the affected victims that they really stayed in the house without coming into contact with outsiders. Visitors are banned. Hence, it requires 100 percent cooperation and self imposed discipline for members of the family who are affected by the quarantine. At any rate, who is to enforce that members of the family do not break this quarantine? At the moment, it is self-imposed quarantine on those who have just returned from H1N1 affected countries. Whether or not they quarantine themselves, we do not know. There is no stringent guideline or enforcement carried out on those who had just returned from overseas. At the same time, I was told that some passengers who returned from overseas complained that no adequate measures were taken at our airport where there were no hand sanitizing dispensers and some of the health authorities did not wear any face mask or gloves.

However, although the H1N1 virus is highly contagious, it does not have high mortality rate (about 0.44% as of June 26) as compared to SARS that has terribly swarmed the world with mortality rate ranging from 15 to 19 percent. It is true that we have to be very careful and sensitive towards the H1N1 outbreak, but at the same time, we must know how to prevent it the right way. Panicking and overreacting to the H1N1 does not help to prevent the virus from spreading.

Maybe the time has come for us to take rational steps to battle the H1N1 and not overreact to it by closing down shops or even buildings when someone is infected with H1N1 virus. It is highly infectious, yes but not all H1N1 cases bring about mortality. We must ensure that the basic public health hygiene is carried out properly. Cleanliness in public facilities is important. In Hong Kong, all public lifts is sanitized daily and the owner is responsible for maintaining this routine. Proper hand wash with soaps, no sneezing without covering your mouth in public places and the wearing of the right masks are some basic steps to prevent H1N1. The surgical masks will not protect the user adequately from the H1N1. The minimum mask protection will be the N-95 mask. I am given to understand that many people are still not aware how H1N1 spreads.

More could be done by the government to improve on public health and safety. The government should rightly educate the public on the awareness of H1N1 so that they would be conscious about H1N1 and prevent it the correct way. In America, there are detailed advices to members of a family on how to take care of a patient of H1N1 and how to prevent the spread of the virus to the rest of family members. I hope that the public and the government could work together to ensure that this H1N1 be curbed soonest possible.

6 comments:

Your article Malaysia The Epicenter of H1N1 in Asean come at the right time and truly caught our attention while browsing the internet.

As concern civilians, we agree "More could be done by the government to improve on public health and safety". Usually, unfortunately and sadly health campaigns don't run long. We wonder why? The best education is via schools and leaders in education must integrate a portion of weekly schedule to health and hygiene. Headmasters under the Ministry of Education also play a role to consistently promote health and hygiene and of course current issue i.e. H1N2. One day I overheard a small girl age 5 asking her dad, whether there would be a H1N2. It may sound funny, but the little girl stirred some thought in us, as parents and responsible citizens. If we are not changing our mindset and paradigm about health and hygiene, there would be more horrifying viruses to come. And mind you, viruses mutates into 'stronger' and 'clever' forms. Think about it.

Last but not least, as long as we stay and share the planer earth, our common home, we must never say we don't care. We must change our mindset. This is our earth. This is our home. We are owners and will care.

As per your H1N1 topic which is so striking, our first concern is fast tracking and treating the disease. Are these properly mapped out, spelled out and explained to the public? The press should have a column on health and hygiene and put up a hotline for H1N1, dengue enquiries, etc. What are the steps to be taken when we encounter the problem? Common sense tells us, TV announcements (that last 30 to 60 seconds) is definitely not sufficient without hard copy print in the local newspapers.

Our second concern is prevention. The common saying, "Prevention is better than cure." Are the borders nothern, western, eastern and southern gates being closely guarded and monitored? Supervision of these officers in charge must be done regularly and strictly.

Any country without proper vision, strategies can become an epicenter of H1N1.

A note of thanks to Doctor Chua for timely tips and observation on the current situation.

Personal hygiene starts from home. But if the home does not know how to teach that, than people who know about healthy living should teach those who do not know how to. The very important contacting point and at times, it can be the first contacting point is between the schools and the pupils. The teachers do not have to spend a long time giving health education. 5 minutes per week may be. Impromptu advise may be. Posters may be. After all these years, we still have dirty wet toilets. We still have dirty coffee shops. We still have dirty streets. Until when ? Malaysia is promoting tourism. You cannot stop people from coming in. You cannot stop people from going out. Then a fever does not mean it is one of the cases. Sometimes the impression is as if Malaysia is trying to get attention from the world but this is a wrong kind of attention.

just some simple thought :1) Create more nice and interesting theme song in all langauages and air it more frequently to create more public awareness.2) Print some massage with interesting and easy to understand picture on those household glossary product which every woman and children will notice.

Unfortunately, I have a friend who was unfortunately infected with H1N1 virus . The frightening issue is she need to wait frantically for two days just to get the assistance from Ministry of Health .

This friend of mine went to Singapore last week to attend an international forum. Participants came from all over the world including Mexico, Australia, Philippines.

When she returned to Malaysia by flight after the 2 days seminar, she found herself came down with the symptoms suspected of H1N1. She quickly went to Government Hospital requested for a H1N1 check up and was informed that result will only churn out in 48 hours . She was asked to wait at home , and the bad news was finally delivered to her that she has contracted H1N1 after 2 days. Though she was stunt and upset, she immediately offered to report to hospital for treatment and quarantine.

“Okay, I will drive to hospital now”

“No, No, No! you are not allowed to do so, please stay at home, we will send the ambulance to pick you up.”

And she waited nearly two days for the ambulance. This 2 days waiting was an unbearable and horrible experience. Being a H1N1 patient already makes one so helpless , she or he will expect the hospital to act immediately , not wondering whether she has been forgotten .

Since she was diagnosed with H1N1, she duly informed the hospital on the persons that had been in contact with her in Singapore. Phone numbers of these persons were passed to the health department for further action.

Again her friend has been waiting for days and nights, which sadly to mention till today no one has called them. Her friends merely wanted to know what to do next. Instead she made the initiative to call the hospital helpline, and more upsetting to find no one was picking the call.

I told her no need to complain or rather to hope to get help. As there was one lady who had undergone H1N1 test but had to call few times to find out the result. She was lucky or rather unlucky that somebody on the other end finally picked up the call and found out that she was H1N1 positive. I do not know whether will she get informed if she doesn’t call.

We deeply appreciated the effort undertaken by the Health Ministry to fight H1N1. However, if the medical officers do not perform their duty in more responsible manner , I wonder, will our country be able to win the war of H1N1?

Who really don’t care? Ministry put the blame on people do not alert. They claimed the people are not co-operative. They have forgotten there are the servant of the people in Malaysia.

I had once made a remark that Malaysia will be badly hit by H1N1 when I came back from a trip to Australia a month ago, as I found the way government’s attitude in dealing with the problem was rather RELAX (“ tidak apa” attitude ) .

Last month, when I was in one of the Hospital for an ECG heart test, I found there were many patients coughing in the public and no medical officer seemed to care about it. And the hospital also did not monitor the public body temperature , unlike our neighboring country Singapore where all visitors to the hospital had to go through temperature screening .

What if I say, the number of cases of H1N1 in Malaysia will reach 1000 in 2 weeks time, would you think so?

Note : my friend was finally “TAKEN AWAY” by the ambulance after a long waiting. It was however within 48 hours.

Welcome to my Blog

As a concerned MCA member, I am trying my best to help in the process of rebuilding and repositioning of the party.

Therefore, I welcome party members and members of public to post your constructive suggestions and opinions on my blog on how to rebuild and reform the party, eventually enabling MCA to regain support from all party members and the community.

Thank you for your suggestions.

About Me

In this blog, I will continue to care and serve the rakyat through my thoughts and opinion on how to make Malaysia a better country. This blog will also contain some of my personal sharing of views on current issues.